Aboriginal Languages of Western Australia

General Course Year 12

Selected Unit 3 syllabus content for the

Externally set task 2017

2016/17751v2Aboriginal Languages of Western Australia General Year 12: Externally set task content 2017

Unit 3

Unit description

The focus for this unit is people in the natural environment. Students use skills in communicating and interacting with peers and the community and in language recording and maintenance. They explore government policies affecting language, regional language revival initiatives and issues, and the development of contemporary Aboriginal languages,including contact languages, such as Aboriginal English and Kriol. They explore the interrelationships of language and culture.

Learning contexts

The focus of Unit 3, people in the natural environment, is organised around two learning contexts. The learning contexts are intended to provide a specific perspective for the teaching and assessment of the unit content.

  • relationships and responsibilities between people and Country, including oral language practices and technology
  • language revival and maintenance initiatives at the state level

Unit content

This unit includes the knowledge, understandings and skills described below.

Language knowledge and use

Features of language
  • common vocabulary relating to the environment, relationships, responsibilities, oral language practices, technology and implements
  • affixes in simple sentences, simple joining words in narrative (then, after that), noun classification, reciprocal and reflexive nouns, pronouns and/or verb tense
  • appropriate use of question forms and responses, including non-verbal communication
  • expansion of metalanguage (in language or English) to identify a range of language features and compare to English and other Aboriginal languages
Varieties of texts
  • simple description, explanation, procedure, interview, autobiography and biography, oral history, song, dance
  • visual and written text types, including multimedia: country and art, map, diagram, chart, list, report, documentary

Cultural understandings

Country and community
  • roles, relationships and responsibilities of family and kin in own and other families
  • seasonal activities and technology (past and present)
Language and the environment
  • seasonal activities
Language ecology
  • language variety and use of different age groups
  • impact of contemporary Aboriginal languages, such as Aboriginal English and Kriol on the local language
  • status and differences in language health in WA, including regional language revival initiatives and issues
Cultural protocols in accessing, eliciting, recording and storing information
  • practical skills for language recording
  • protocols for retrieving and recording information
  • storage and maintenance systems

Learning and communication strategies

Learning and communication strategies are processes, techniques and skills relevant to:

  • supporting learning and the acquisition of language
  • making meaning from texts
  • producing texts
  • engaging in spoken interaction.

These strategies support and enhance the development of literacy skills, and enable further development of cognitive skills through critical thinking and analysis, solving problems, and making connections. Students should be taught these strategies explicitly and be provided with opportunities to practise them. A list of suggested strategies can be found in Appendix 2.

Aboriginal Languages of Western Australia General Year 12: Externally set task content 20171